Star Power
by Salacassera
Summary: SIII. Nadir wants to increase theater attendance and boost morale, so he casts some famous faces in his next production of "Romeo and Juliet." Chris has a hard time balancing her obligations.


Star Power

Author's Note: An old story from last year I never got around to posting. I don't own Suikoden III or its characters. It all belongs to Konami. I took the lines from the in-game play.

* * *

Nadir smiled behind his mask as he surveyed the crowd eagerly awaiting the Budehuc Castle Players' first-ever performance of Romeo and Juliet. The idle conversation hushed as the lights dimmed and Juliet walked out onto her balcony. When Romeo joined her a few seconds later, it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Not everyone was impressed, however.

"What a ham!" Joker whispered.

"He has a captive audience," Captain Geddoe hissed back. Joker grinned, but managed an angelic smile when "Romeo" looked directly at them. A few days earlier, he and the other members of his unit were drinking at their usual table in the tavern when Ace rushed over, waving something above his head.

"I've got us front-row seats!" he gasped, sliding into a chair.

"For what?" Queen asked, when none of the others opened their mouths.

"The newest theater production, of course!" Ace said. "Don't you pay any attention to your surroundings? Everybody's taking about it!"

"I don't know, I've been a little more preoccupied with the war that's going on," Joker had replied, sipping his drink. "And since when have you been into the theater?"

Ace spared them all a lecture on their lack of taste for once. "The leading actress is a real beauty," he admitted. "Come on, guys! It'll be fun."

"Might as well," Geddoe said. Ace whooped and the others shrugged. A few days later Geddoe overheard Nadir talking and learned that the coveted role of Juliet had gone to Elaine, which explained Ace's sudden interest. But Ace insisted that he had no idea that Duke was playing Romeo.

"Don't look at me!" he mouthed, when the others turned to glare at him. Duke and Elaine played their roles for all they were worth, smirking at the mercenaries in the front row at every opportunity.

Duke wasn't half bad, either. Geddoe had to admit that his rival hadn't forgotten a single line or missed a single cue. When the actors took their final bows and the curtain dropped, the crowd cheered. Thankfully, Duke was too swamped with congratulators to gloat further. The mercenaries fled while they could.

"Captain, you need to try out for the next play!" Ace cried.

Geddoe stared at him for a moment, then realized that he was serious. Worse, the others were all nodding and muttering about showing Duke who was boss. Nadir had approached Geddoe several times since they arrived at Budehuc, telling him that it would raise morale to have the Flame Champion's old friend perform, but the mercenary captain always declined.

"Sounds like fun!" Aila said encouragingly, completely missing the tension. She and Jacques left to get a soda from Anne's bar.

"All right, all right," Geddoe relented. "I'll try out." With some of the other dramatic types in Budehuc, he couldn't possibly win the role. He'd read a few lines in his deadpan way, send Nadir into conniptions and go back to work.

* * *

Lady Chris left the stable, looking forward to one of Budehuc's famous hot baths and a light repast before retiring early that night. As usual, the castle residents had other things in mind. Cecile, devoted gatekeeper, had begun waving her arms excitedly as soon as she spotted a white horse riding towards her from the direction of Brass Castle. Chris couldn't help smiling to herself at the little crowd that gathered to greet her - you would have thought she had been gone for months, instead of a weekend errand. The knight ignored her fatigue and walked briskly towards the meeting hall, expecting to give a report to Salome and Caesar.

"Pardon me, madam, can you spare a moment?"

Chris jumped back in alarm, and Borus's hand flew to the hilt of his sword as a man in a white mask stepped out from an alcove. Then she realized that it was just that strange drama producer who had arrived at Budehuc a few weeks earlier and relaxed.

"Damn it man, that's dangerous!" Borus muttered, but Nadir ignored him.

"What is it?" Chris asked, wondering what he could possibly want with her.

"As you may have heard, I have established a humble theater here at Budehuc Castle," Nadir said. "Our first productions have been met with modest success."

Chris nodded. "I've seen the fliers. It seems... interesting."

"We would be honored to have your patronage, my lady - "

"Get to the point!" Borus commanded. "Salome's waiting for us, remember?"

"How would you like to be the leading lady in our next production of Romeo and Juliet?" Nadir said quickly.

"Me?" Chris cried.

"Yes!" Nadir said, slowly raising his arms. "I can see it now... the dimmed stage, the beautiful Silver Maiden..."

"I think you've made a mistake," Chris said, feeling her cheeks burning. "I'm a terrible actor, I'm afraid."

"No need to be modest, my lady!" Nadir told her.

"And I'm not sure I have the time to devote to this sort of thing," Chris continued weakly, but the producer wasn't listening. He was chuckling to himself, as his future masterpiece unfolded in his mind. She threw a desperate glance Borus's way.

"I agree with him," Borus announced. "You'd make a wonderful Juliet!" No other woman in the castle rivaled the Silver Maiden's beauty, in his expert opinion, not even that gorgeous Rune Mistress.

"Stop by the tavern tonight for the script," Nadir said. "Thank you so much, my lady!"

"But I haven't agreed to anything - "

"Percival, did you hear?" Borus was saying, as the other knights arrived to welcome their captain back. "Lady Chris is going to play Juliet!"

"Great choice, sir!" Percival told Nadir heartily.

Chris sighed. "We'd better go check in with Salome."

* * *

"What?!" the normally taciturn Captain Geddoe shouted. "Are you kidding me?!"

An astounding number of men had turned up to try out for the role of Romeo, after the news that the Silver Maiden was going to play Juliet spread throughout the castle like wildfire. Sir Leo's jaw dropped and Sir Roland scowled, while Augustine was too dignified to let his shock show on his face. Nadir mistook the mercenary's sudden verbosity for excitement and congratulated him.

"Good going, Captain!" Ace cried, ambushing him outside the door. "I knew you could do it!"

"Yeah, I can't wait to see the look on Duke's face," Queen agreed.

"You'd better start studying your lines right away!" Aila told him.

"Hmph."

* * *

The library was almost empty at this time of night. Eike stood impassive as ever by the window, and Ernie was still laboring over some scrolls in her corner. Rody has fallen asleep while studying a huge book that looked as though it weighed half as much as he did, and muttered something about blowing on soup to himself. Lady Chris tiptoed over to a chair by the fireplace, careful not to wake the young mage, settled down and opened the script in her lap for the first time since she received it a week earlier. Her duties kept her too busy to do so before.

_Romeo, Romeo. Why are you Romeo? Deny your father and refuse your name, and I shall do the same._

Chris whispered the lines to herself, but soon found her mind wandering. Rody had begun snoring softly, and it was a little distracting. She wondered if she should wake him before he began drooling. She glanced at the librarian, who didn't seem to care. Was it true that Eike slept with his eyes open?

_I'd prefer that that sun would never rise. Then the two of us stay here talking like this for all eternity._

"There you are, my lady!"

Chris looked up sharply as Louis entered the library, looking relieved. "Caesar sent me to look for you! He has a new strategy he wants to discuss as soon as possible."

Romeo would have to wait.

* * *

A few days later, Chris was seated at a table outside Mamie's restaurant, a plate of apple gratin untouched in front of her as she pored over her script.

""If any of my relatives were to find you, they would surely kill you," she read to herself.

"I beg your pardon?" Percival, who had slid into the empty chair opposite her asked, slightly nonplussed. "That might complicate things!"

Chris looked up and blushed.

"Don't mind me! I'm just studying these blasted lines." No matter how many times she read them, they seemed to vanish from her mind like smoke the next day. "Oh, what was Nadir thinking? Why didn't he have me audition like everyone else? I hope people don't think he's showing me favoritism."

"Who's saying things like that?" Percival demanded. When Chris admitted that nobody had so far he went on, "Everyone looks up to you! Seeing you perform will raise everyone's spirits. Don't forget that a portion of the money brought in by ticket sales is going to be used to refurbish this place, too." Some Calerian children were playing hide-and-seek nearby, and one of them darted inside through a gaping hole in the castle wall.

Chris recognized that he was trying to cheer her up and appreciated his effort. "I guess you're right. I'll give it my best shot."

"We have the utmost faith in you! Everyone's excited for the opening night next week."

Chris almost spat out her drink. "Next week?!"

* * *

If Nadir was pleased by the crowd a month earlier, tonight he was ecstatic. It seemed as though every castle dweller was there to watch the show (except for Bright and Ruby who were peering through the windows outside, because Nadir had his limits). Every chair was taken and even more people stood in back, craning their necks to glimpse the stage. Behind the curtain, Lady Chris swallowed, her mouth dry. She glanced at the other performers, wondering if any of their stomachs were also in knots. Perhaps Thomas, who had been cast as a guard along with Bishop Sasarai, but everyone else seemed calm enough. She took a few deep breaths as Nadir spoke a few lines about the play's history, the actors and asked everyone to be quiet.

"You're on," he told Chris a few moments later. Feeling like she was in a bad dream, Chris slowly walked out onto the balcony.

"Ro, Rome...o..." Chris croaked, hands shaking. She had hoped to spend several hours studying the script one last time that morning, but a messenger from Brass Castle arrived and she was only able to catch a few minutes before it was time to join the other performers. She gazed out at the crowd and instantly regretted it, although everyone smiled back. Geddoe strode onto the stage and she waited expectantly, glad that he would take some of the pressure off her, but he just looked up at her, expressionless as ever. _Did he forget his lines, too?!_ Chris wondered. Somehow she doubted it.

"...I jumped over the wall," Geddoe said, taking pity on the poor woman. He could see the sweat beading on her brow. "...Really? I'm sorry to hear that."

"The voices came from somewhere around here," Thomas said gamely when he and Sasarai entered a few agonizing minutes later. Thomas, who had been tolerably steady, began to falter when Chris didn't reply. "Lady Juliet... we... we came because we heard the sound of people talking here..."

"Ye...yes." Chris managed to gasp out.

"Please forgive my rudeness," Sasarai told her with a reassuring smile. Despite his youthful face, he was a skilled orator with many years of experience, even if he tended to be monotonous. _"Talking to the birds,_" he whispered, trying to prompt her next line, but she gave him a blank stare.

Finally, _finally_, Rico, the nurse, called her from inside the set. "Madam!"

"I'm... I'm heading back inside," "Juliet" told her lover, and almost ran into the little house. A few minutes passed. The stagehands began to gape, as she was obviously supposed to be doing _something_ but she couldn't for the life of her remember what.

"What are you doing?!" Nadir hissed. "Get back out there!"

Outside, Geddoe threw up his arms in defeat and strode offstage in the same manner he had entered. Chris retreated into the set again, skidding a little on the boards, and almost tripped. She bumped into the wall, which toppled over in a crash.

* * *

The tavern erupted in boos and catcalls. Borus and Leo leapt up to apprehend those who dared to boo their captain, while Percival and Roland struggled to push them back down into their chairs. Duke and his crew guffawed loudly, and Ace and Joker stared at Geddoe, who had shed his costume and rejoined them in record time, in disbelief.

"I said I was hopeless as an actress," Chris repeated several times, still feeling dazed, although she stopped trembling.

"Nonsense, you did fine!" Borus insisted, but even he couldn't muster as much enthusiasm as usual.

Nearby, Thomas was being congratulated by the other members of the castle staff, who were all very proud of him.

"I loved it!" Chris heard Muto declare, loudly enough to cut through all the other conversations. "It was so funny! My favorite part was when she knocked the house down! I hope they do it again soon."

Chris could hear Cecile telling the Kobold warehouse keeper that the play wasn't meant to be a comedy, but Muto's remark broke the tension in the tavern. People drifted over to Anne's bar for drinks or outside for some fresh air.

"I should probably talk to Nadir," Chris said, although she would have rather faced a Harmonian battalion. She could only imagine the drama producer's temper at his performance being ruined. He was probably ripping up parchments that minute. She headed to the back room and knocked.

"Come in," Nadir commanded curtly, and Chris stepped inside.

"I, um... I just wanted to apologize," she said. "I know you and the others put a lot of work into the performance tonight."

"It is I who should be apologizing to you, my dear lady," Nadir told her. "I was blinded by greed and vanity."

"What?"

"Instead of casting those who were best-suited to the roles, I cast the most prestigious actors," he lamented. "Those who could bring glory to my stage! No actor can truly shine in a role he or she is coerced into playing! If only I knew my folly. Now I see what my true mission is. I must discover the obscure gems this castle has to offer and polish them..."

He began chuckling to himself. Chris took that as her cue to leave, quietly closing the door behind her. There was still time for a hot bath before bed.


End file.
